The Zamoskvoretsky District Court in Moscow sentenced Vladislav Azarochkin to 15 days in detention. He was detained on 29 March at Bolotnaya Square and later reported being beaten by law enforcement, according to SOTAvision.
He was found guilty of petty hooliganism (part 1, article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences).
According to Azarochkin, he was detained after witnessing someone else being detained and offering to act as a witness for the police:
“I’m walking by the centre, take out a cigarette, start smoking, see lots of police officers, see someone being led off, their belongings thrown on the pavement. I offered to act as a witness if it was a search. Then five officers surrounded me. ‘What are you smoking? ’ they asked. I apologised, put out the cigarette. They said I was littering, that it was article 19.3, twisted my arms, no one identified themselves even though I asked. They took me to a police van, there they took a person’s phone and searched through it. Then a police officer grabbed me by the throat and began to choke me. He mocked me with words. Then he said he would ‘play the leather flute’ with me, holding me by the zip, clearly threatening rape.”
After that, Azarochkin was beaten. In court, he said it was still painful for him to stand and he was covered in bruises. According to the detainee, one of the officers told him: “I hate people like you.”
Soon after, Azarochkin’s condition worsened and an ambulance was called for him. He was then taken to hospital, where his injuries were documented. However, the medical records were not attached to the case file.
The detainee spent the night at the Yakimanka police station. Police did not allow volunteers to give him water or hygiene items, and the ventilation in his cell was turned off.
As SOTAvision reports, originally the police were going to charge Azarochkin with violating the smoking ban. But, claims the detainee, that document “was scrunched up and thrown away after a call from above.”
In court, lawyer Oskar Cherdzhiev requested that footage from police body cameras be seized and that the officers be summoned for questioning. Judge Yulia Varankina denied his requests.
In court, Azarochkin also told his defence lawyer that the police beat him both at the station and again this morning. He felt unwell due to the stuffy conditions in the cell, fell down, and then asked for an ambulance to be called. According to Azarochkin, after that, the police kicked him. He noted that corridor cameras at the station might have recorded this.
16:47 After the court session, Azarochkin called his girlfriend and said he had been beaten in the police van. SOTAvision reports this.
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